Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

ch-scene - Re: Anthropology

ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: RTP-area local music and culture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>
  • To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: Anthropology
  • Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2005 17:06:20 -0500

Chris Calloway just posted the second end-all post in this thread, which is a pretty damn high number for us, so there you go. Yet it continues.

Setting aside the correctness of everything that both 3.2.3 and CLO spoke about this issue, I do find it curious that people were apparently unwilling to dance to LeTigre. I haven't heard the new album -- I'm sorry, but Kathleen Hanna on Universal? I'll just pretend she's dead instead, OK? -- but certainly the few times that I've been pressed to program what passed loosely for a dance party, LeTigre certainly made the cut. And I think people danced. I wasn't really paying attention.

There has been speculation about the sheer mental exhaustion that comes from overexposure to so many great bands. I mean, sure, LeTigre may be great now, but are they better than that one time at the Lizard and Snake back in 199_? Just sorting through the various qualifiers & determining where any given show fits within the hierarchy of lifetime shows attended can take most of the evening, leaving precious few moments for dancing.

Certainly I have seen many many more booties shaking at various non-rockclub dance parties, even some booties belonging to supposedly notorious non-dancers. Of course, generally speaking it's hard to get people to start dancing until the DJ plays "Push It"; maybe bands should try that.

Ultimately, Calloway pegged it completely when he said, simply enough, that people will dance if the music makes them want to dance. I don't think there's *anybody* standing on the sidelines saying "fuck man, this beat is SOOOO KILLER and I'd love to be dancing right now, but social mores forbid it."

And if they are, well, they have only themselves to blame. I myself dance when I feel like it, and I hardly feel the need to cop to any responsibility for anybody else in that area.

If other people can't get some perceived peer-pressure monkey off their backs, perhaps they need to go back to high school and try a little harder to get ostracized, so they can properly get over that shit & move on.

Maybe that's it: I blame these giant 3000-student high schools, where even the outcast kids wind up in with a peer group that numbers in the dozens, if not hundreds.

It always comes down to The Man, don't it?

Ross

Mary Anne Barckhoff wrote:
--- clo AT nc.rr.com wrote:

But seriously - what's the deal with the dancing
or not dancing at
shows thing? I've heard this complaint over and
over again. To
people on the periphery of the music scene it seems
to typify what they
don't like about going to local shows. It's kind
of a strange thing
to fixate on, don't ya think? Am I crazy or has
anyone else heard
this criticism? Just curious.



ALL the time. In fact, I just had a conversation
about it last nite with a guy who moved here about 2
years ago. He brought it up, not me! And, apparently
the lack of dancing is distasteful to him. Specifically, he was referring to the LeTigre show and
he quoted LeTigre as proclaiming that their music is
for people to dance to. He was baffled as to why
Chapel Hillians wouldn't oblige.
I just crossed my arms and nodded (heh!).

mab

Viva la Venus website: http://www.vivalavenus.com
Little Miss Messy website: http://www.littlemissmessy.net

*****************************************************
The difference between excitement and fear is a matter of choice.
*****************************************************
-- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page